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UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE.

HENRY S. OROOKE AND LEWIS OROOKE, OF NEW YORK, N. Y.

MANUFACTURE OF METALLIC FOIL.

SPECIFICATION forming part of Letters Patent No. 227,496, dated May 11,1880..

Application filed September 8, 1879.

To all whom it may concern Be it known that we, HENRY SUYDAM ORooKE andLEWIS OROOKE, both of the city,

, in the Art of Manufacturing Metallic Foil, of

which the following is a specification.

Our improvements may be divided into two principal divisions, the firstof which comprises the new manufacture in its different styles, and thesecond of which comprises the processes by which the same is made.

In order that both parts of our invention may be fully understood, wewill proceed to describe the mode in which we have produced our newmanufacture and the characteristics of the latter. v

The material used, by preference, as a basis for the manufacture is tinand its alloys with lead, and the material is reduced to the conditionof foil by the customary means and process employed in the manufactureof rolled burnished tin-foil, which means and process, being wellunderstood, need not be described.

We prefer that the surfaces of the foil shall be commercially pure tin,while the body or core is of lead, or of an alloy of tin and lead, thecore and surfaces being'welded together in the process of rolling.

According to one mode of manufacture, the metallic foil, when producedas above stated, is subjected to the action of a pair of hard rollers,the surfaces of the bodies of which are etched or matted, and the tworollers are held together with sufficient force to mat the tin foilsubjected to their action, the practical effect of which is to impart tothe tin-foil a dead-white surface resembling frosted silver.

The matting-rolls which we. prefer for this operation are of steel or ofchilled iron, and their bodies are first ground true, and are thenetched by means of weak muriatic acid, or some other acid or mixtures ofacids that will effect the desired result. The foil is stripped from thesurfaces of the matting-rolls, and is then colored or printed, bypreference, with a printing-roller having the design formed upon itssurface. As the surface of the foil isa matsurface, but smooth orwithout appreciable indentations, the color or printing-ink takesreadily to the surface, and the printing is effected as readily as uponpaper. The printing may be done while the foil is in the web, or

the foil may be cut into sheets of greater or less size, which may beprinted by means of either a cylinder-press or a flat press.

After the coloring or printing is completed and dry the printed sheetsoffoil are embossed, the preferred mode of doing this being to submitthe printed web of foil to the action of a pair of embossin g-rollers,the surfaces of whose bodies are the counterparts of those of the foilto be produced.

According to another mode of proceeding, We color or print the foil inthe burnished'condition in which it exists when the metal has beenreduced by rolling in the usual manner, and after the printing is dry weemboss the printed foil, as before mentioned.

The distinguishing characteristics of both modes of proceedingare thatthe foil is colored or printed before its surface is indented byembossing; hence the coloring-matter is applied; to a flat surfaceeither burnished or whitened, and the article produced is characterizedby the peculiarity that the ornamentation produced by embossing indentsthe colored surface. (Jonsequently the hollows or indentations of thefoil are as well printed as the projections, which result is notpracticable when the foil is printed after the embossing operation hasbeen effected.

' As before stated, the foil may be printed or colored in the web andcut up subsequently or may be printed in sheets of greater or less size,and the sheets may be either left in the sizes in which they are printedand embossed or cut up into smaller sizes, or the material may be soldin the web and cut up by the user.

If the surface of the foil is matted before it is printed, the parts ofthe foil not printed present a silvery white surface as a backgroundferent manufacturers of the articles to be wrapped, may be embossed inthe foil in connection with a great variety of printing or coloring,while the foil, being metallic, is impervious to water, air, and grease.

We claim as our invention- 1. As a new article of manufacture,ornamental metallic foil having its surface matted,

' colored, and embossed in a pattern, substan- 4. The improvement in theart of making metallic foil, substantially as before set forth,comprisingthe following operations, viz: first, the printing of thefoil; second, the indenting or embossing of the surface of the article,the said operations being performed in the order in which they are abovespecified.

W'itness our hands this 5th day of September, A. D. 1879.

HENRY SUYDAM OROOKE. LEAVIS OROOKE.

Witnesses:

H. F. WEST, A. I. DALTON.

